I juggled being a mom with two kids and my career, as a teacher, so I had no time for myself. When I did get the chance to pick up a book, I craved stories that whisked me away from reality—books that were full of action and kept me turning the pages. Even though I enjoy other types of genres, my heart always goes back to dystopian books, which is why I eventually wrote my own series.
This book hooked me from the first page, and The Union has all the exciting elements I love in a book—fast-paced, danger, action, and romance.
I didn’t want to put the book down, so I stayed past my bedtime, especially since I wanted to know about the protagonist’s love interests. It was easy to get lost in the book. The author did an amazing job with the details of the characters and the world-building.
After global warming and a second civil war devastated the former United States, two different societies rose from the ashes – the Union, a towering high-tech utopia, hugging the perimeter of the continent, and the devastated, untamed midsection known as the Ruins.Seventeen-year-old Evan Taylor has an easy, privileged life in the Union. What she doesn’t have is any idea what to do with the rest of her life. She only knows she wants to do something meaningful, to make a difference in the lives of others.When she’s kidnapped and taken into the Ruins as a pawn in a dispute involving…
Originally from Havre, Montana, I’m now a Reader in International Politics at the City University of London and a Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. I’ve long been fascinated by how legal orders are created, contested, and transformed across time and space. Before becoming an academic, I worked as an international development professional in several countries, including Afghanistan, Nepal, and Timor-Leste. I earned a PhD in International Relations from Oxford University, a Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School, an MA in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queen’s University Belfast as a Mitchell Scholar, and a BA from Grinnell College.
The rule of law often equates with peace at home and peaceful relations abroad. Yet, as Caplan shows, peace–and determining when we can confidently say peace prevails–is far from obvious. Measuring Peace clarifies the pitfalls and opportunities of peacebuilding.
The book shows why peace is often difficult to maintain but never loses sight of why it is such an important goal–both for society as a whole and as a foundation for the rule of law.
How can we know if the peace that has been established following a civil war is a stable peace? More than half of all countries that experienced civil war since World War II have suffered a relapse into violent conflict, in some cases more than once. Meanwhile the international community expends billions of dollars and deploys tens of thousands of personnel each year in support of efforts to build peace in countries emerging from violent conflict.
This book argues that efforts to build peace are hampered by the lack of effective means of assessing progress towards the achievement of a…
I love stories that exist within stories. I like to delve into what we think our world is about and discover the layering underneath that reveals complex relationships and real motives behind what characters do and why. One of the most fun things about a book involving conspiracies, like any good mystery, is going back through and reading a second time to see what clues I missed. Did I see this coming in advance? Did my initial perceptions of the characters hold up, or did the twist upend them completely? Should it have been obvious to me, or was it so subtle that only a master detective could’ve picked up on it?
I always hear that disaster brings unity, but what if that “unity” was all a manipulation for power? Hidden Empire reminded me a little of the immediate aftermath of 9/11. I’ve wondered if, given our political divisions, we could ever come together like that again.
Orson Scott Card created a world where someone manipulates our division and desire for unity, and I loved seeing how someone could play us on so many levels. Reading about the use of a common enemy to wipe out national leadership and then playing up our political differences to create chaos, I became engrossed in a story about political intrigue and whether or not a savior was the hero we really wanted or the hero he wanted us to believe he was.
The war of words between right and left collapsed into a shooting war, and raged between the high-technology weapons on each side, devastating cities and overrunning the countryside.
At the close of Empire, political scientist and government adviser Averell Torrent had maneuvered himself into the presidency of the United States. And now that he has complete power at home, he plans to expand American imperial power around the world.
Opportunity comes quickly. There's a deadly new plague in Africa, and it is devastating the countryside and cities. President Torrent declares American solidarity with the victims, but places all of Africa…
I’ve always loved dark, thought-provoking tear-jerkers, the way they challenge my mind and elicit powerful emotions. Maybe it’s because I grew up in an age when men couldn’t cry or show emotions. Maybe it’s because I lived such a happy-go-lucky childhood, hiking through woods and catching lizards and turtles, that I grew curious about the darker aspects of life. It could be how I cope with having fought for two years on the front lines of combat and why I found myself in a philosopher’s classroom, studying ethics. All I know is that my heart craves powerful, dark stories that make my eyes leak.
I fell in love with the prose in this masterful series, and I very much found myself in the main character—just a happy-go-lucky boy thrown into the dark, cruel world.
At the time, all the loss, suffering, and heartache the characters endured throughout the series helped me process the loss of my grandparents. It’s dark, absolutely tear-jerking, and I love it.
The first book of the trilogy "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" tells the story of Simon, a kitchen boy and sorceror's apprentice, who must find the solution to the riddle of the long-lost swords of power, in order to combat the evil of the undead Sithi Ruler, the Storm King.
I love how this author brings together historical facts with fiction and brings every character to life in a relatable way.
History in a living, breathing way with people who walked this earth and made decisions, especially kings and queens of England and political leaders that changed the course of history forever. This story fascinated me around the uprising of King James that I knew little about.
The new historical novel from Philippa Gregory, the Number One bestselling author of Tidelands and Dark Tides.
In a divided country, power and loyalty conquer all...
It is 1685 and England is on the brink of a renewed civil war against the Stuart kings with many families bitterly divided. Alinor, now a successful businesswoman, has been coaxed by the manipulative Livia to save Queen Mary from the coming siege. The rewards are life-changing: the family could return to their beloved Tidelands, and Alinor could rule where she was once lower than a servant.
I have been researching and writing about the era of the American Civil War for something over half a century. My passion for the subject remains strong today, having just published my seventh book. Given the seemingly endless amounts of material from soldiers and civilians alike, I have enjoyed deeply researching neglected subjects and writing about them in a way that appeals to both historians and general readers. For me the Civil War never grows stale, there are always little-used sources to research and fresh ideas to consider. The American Civil is omnipresent in my life—not excluding weekends and holidays!
I began reading Seasons of War while in a hospital waiting for my wife to come out of surgery. To my great surprise, I became so engrossed in this beautifully written and deeply moving book that it took my mind off any anxiety I was feeling.
First of all, Sutherland evokes a time—1861 to 1865—and a place—Culpeper County, Virginia—that turned out to be the great crossroads of the American Civil War. The two sides camped in, marched through, and fought over this strategic piece of real estate. This is the story of soldiers and civilians, of military campaigns, and the home front.
The book is filled with memorable figures from Jeb Stuart to Ulysses S. Grant to long-suffering women and children. Sutherland’s prose is venturesome, at times earthy, and always compelling.
The story of Culpeper County, Virginia, is a unique one in Civil War history. Nestled in one of the South's most strategically important locations, it was occupied by the Northern army, recaptured by the Confederacy, and finally ceded to the North. Told largely through the diaries, papers, and correspondence of residents, common infantrymen, and such eminent personalities as Robert E. Lee, Walt Whitman, Ulysses S. Grant, Clara Barton, and Stonewall Jackson, all of whom spent time in Culpeper, this story wonderfully captures both the intimacy and grandeur of war. Sutherland's account of the war is unlike any other. Both a…
Growing up, many of the female characters in the media I engaged with were thin stereotypes (and some still are). Slowly, culture shifted towards the “strong female character, which quickly became a stereotype of its own. As culture shifts again to more nuanced female characters, many of them are slapped with the label of “unlikeable.” The label usually means that the character isn’t a tired stereotype and is complex, multifaceted, and interesting. Also, nearly all the time, the same traits admired in a male character are despised in a female character (think of Alicent Hightower, whose moral complexity would certainly be celebrated in a man).
It's difficult to discuss what might make Baru unlikable without delving into spoilers, but that's fine because you must see this book through to appreciate it fully.
Baru, an accountant, finds herself caught in the jaws of empire when her homeland is colonized and one of her fathers is killed. Cold and calculating, Baru desperately claws her way to power in an attempt to fight empire from within, and along the way, must reckon with how much of herself she is willing to sacrifice for her goals. I can’t emphasize how bleak this book is, and part of that comes from watching Baru eat herself alive and be awful to other people.
[Published as The Traitor Baru Cormorant in the US]
Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people - even her soul.
When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her Fathers, Baru vows to hide her hate, join the Empire's civil service, and claw her way up enough rungs of power to put a stop to the Emperor's influence and set her people free.
As a natural savant, she is sent as an imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn - a post she worries will never get her the…
When I was twelve years old, my picture appeared in my hometown newspaper. I was holding a huge stack of books from the library, a week’s reading. All science fiction. I’ve read voraciously for the past seventy years—though much more widely as an adult. I’ve also had a life founding several small companies and writing twenty books. But I’ve continued to read science fiction, and, increasingly, dystopian novels. Why? Because, as a history buff, I think about the big trends that shape our lives. I see clearly that climate change, breakthroughs in technology, and unstable politics threaten our children’s future. I want to understand how these trends might play out—for better or for worse.
The widening partisan divide between Red and Blue in the United States today gives me nightmares.
I read a lot of history, so I know how closely today’s divisions resemble those before the Civil War. Which is why Omar El Akkad’sAmerican War resonates so deeply with me.
In 2074, four Deep South states secede over the passage of new legislation banning fossil fuels—and a Southerner assassinates the President.
The Red and Blue states are now at war again. And that’s my nightmare brought to life.
A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian, The Observer, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post.
2074. America's future is Civil War. Sarat's reality is survival. They took her father, they took her home, they told her lies . . .
She didn't start this war, but she'll end it.
Omar El Akkad's powerful debut novel imagines a dystopian future: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague and one family caught deep in the middle. In American War, we're asked to consider what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and…
My interest in politics and conflict has always come from the margins. I have developed an interest in the periphery, minorities, liberation movements, other actors outside the center, official governance institutions, and national political elites. My work has mainly concentrated on how such actors have sought to influence politics at the national and international level and how questions of identity, perceptions of self and other, and sense of belonging come into play. Geographically, my interest has lied primarily in the Middle East, broadly defined, particularly Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Kurdistan. In recent years, however, I have also developed an interest in East Africa, especially Sudan and South Sudan.
Fragmentation is a natural tendency among humans. Collectives, groups, and organizations face centrifugal tendencies that push for division and fragmentation. Ideological movements, in particular, face this risk, as there will always be members of the group who are dissatisfied with how the collective is progressing toward achieving its goals.
Rebel movements are an excellent example, as such actors constantly fragment, divide, and evolve through years of rebellion. But what factors contribute to or prevent divisions among rebel groups from disintegrating? And not less importantly, what are the implications of fragmentation on civil wars in which the rebel movements participate?
Based on rigorous fieldwork in the Horn of Africa, with particular attention to Eritrea and Ethiopia and an additional outlook into Somalia, Woldemariam offers a convincing theory that addresses these questions by examining such factors as battlefield developments and the nature of control over territory. He does so clearly and eloquently,…
When insurgent organizations factionalize and fragment, it can profoundly shape a civil war: its intensity, outcome, and duration. In this extended treatment of this complex and important phenomenon, Michael Woldemariam examines why rebel organizations fragment through a unique historical analysis of the Horn of Africa's civil wars. Central to his view is that rebel factionalism is conditioned by battlefield developments. While fragmentation is caused by territorial gains and losses, counter-intuitively territorial stalemate tends to promote rebel cohesion and is a critical basis for cooperation in war. As a rare effort to examine these issues in the context of the Horn…
This fantasy series is about humanity. You follow several characters through a war-torn world, each one fighting desperately to stay alive. The story puts the characters in very trying situations and gives them a choice: kill or be killed. Ultimately, we come to understand that a life of honor can be tarnished in an instant and only luck decides who will be blameless in the end.
THE BOOK BEHIND THE SECOND SEASON OF GAME OF THRONES, AN ORIGINAL SERIES NOW ON HBO.
A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: BOOK TWO
In this thrilling sequel to A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin has created a work of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination. A Clash of Kings transports us to a world of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare unlike any we have ever experienced.
A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for…
